Rotary International president introduced

When Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka of Japan visits Oak Ridge March 8-10, Rotarians in the city’s three clubs will recognize him as a great role model.

by Carolyn Krause/Special to The Oak Ridger

When Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka of Japan visits Oak Ridge March 8-10, Rotarians in the city’s three clubs will recognize him as a great role model.

Tanaka has demonstrated the Rotary motto “Service above Self” many times. He declared his theme is “Peace through Service” and that Rotary International would sponsor three international peace forums in Berlin, Germany; Honolulu, Hawaii, and Hiroshima, Japan.

He agreed to speak March 9 at the Oak Ridge Peace Forum, the only scheduled peace forum sponsored by a Rotary district (District 6780) in the continental United States that the Rotary International president will address. The district governor is Jack Bailey of Oak Ridge.

In his working life, Tanaka served as chairman of the Daika Co. and president of the National Household Papers Distribution Association of Japan. He also was vice president of the Yashio City Chamber of Commerce.

He has served in many leadership positions in Rotary and made large donations to The Rotary Foundation. TRF enables Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health (for example, polio eradication), support of education and alleviation of poverty.

A member of the Rotary Club of Yashio since its charter in 1975, he has served Rotary International as a director, Rotary Foundation trustee, chair of the 2009 Birmingham (U.K.) Convention Committee, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, district governor and training leader.

Working with his district, Tanaka helped construct a school building in Bangladesh. He received the Rotary International Service Above Self Award and the Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award.

He and his wife, Kyoko, are Paul Harris Fellows, benefactors of the Permanent Fund, Major Donors, and members of the Arch C. Klumph Society. In addition, Tanaka has established an endowed Rotary Peace Fellowship.

Since Rotary International was founded 108 years ago, Tanaka will be the third sitting Rotary International president to speak in Oak Ridge. The only other times a sitting Rotary International president spoke in Oak Ridge was in 2000 when Frank Devlyn of Mexico came here and in 1993 when Robert Barth of Switzerland visited Oak Ridge.

The Rotary International District 6780 will hold the Peace Forum from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at Pollard Technology Conference Center on the Oak Ridge Associated Universities campus. The conference hotel is the DoubleTree by Hilton on South Illinois Avenue.

On March 7, Tanaka will go to Nashville and meet with corporate leaders from Tennessee offices of Japanese companies.

When he arrives in Oak Ridge on March 8, he will visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the International Friendship Bell (designed in Oak Ridge, cast in Japan), and the Secret City Commemorative Walk (built by the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge) in A.K. Bissell Park.

Fred Heitman, Peace Forum organizing committee chairman, said, “We are looking for ideas on how to achieve peace through science and technology and through human understanding. Our vision is to work toward creating a world that chooses communication, collaboration and cooperation over conflict.”

Jim Roberto, head of the Partnerships directorate and acting deputy director for science and technology at ORNL, will be the moderator of the “Peace through Science and Technology” panel.

Panelists will be Budhendra Bhaduri, leader of the Geographic Information Science and Technology group in the Computing and Computational Sciences directorate; Gene Ice, director of the Materials Science and Technology Division; Alan Icenhour, director of the Global Nuclear Security Technology Division, and Rekha Pillai, manager of ORNL’s International Science and Technology Program.

Karen Wentz, past district governor of District 6780, will be moderator of the “Peace through Human Understanding” panel.

Panelists will be Dick Bowers, former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, past Rotary district governor and retired member of the U.S. diplomatic corps; Jake Morrill, minister at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church; and Allison Kwesell, a Rotary World Peace Fellow at the International Christian University in Tokyo and a documentary photojournalist.

The registration fee is $50, which includes a box lunch and drink. Non-Rotarians, as well as Rotarians, are welcome to attend.

The first major sponsor of the forum is TnBank of Oak Ridge. Other corporate sponsors include AkinsCrisp Public Strategies, American Aquatics, Galbraith Laboratories, and the Y-12 Federal Credit Union.

Rotary International is an international organization of 1.2 million members of 34,000 nonprofit service clubs in more than 200 nations and territories.

For more information, contact Fred Heitman at jfredd@aol.com. To register for the conference, visit the website http://www.rotaryor.org/peaceforum.html.